g4 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



oat straw aud turnips 3'ou should feed liberallj' with cotton seed 

 meal and oat meal. We sometimes refer to the P^nglish practice of 

 feeding turnips; if vou will observe carefully you will find that 

 when the English are feeding turnips the}' almost invariably feed 

 linseed meal or cotton seed meal in large amount "with them, thus 

 correcting the defects of the turnips. 



QiKSTioN. How about turnips for colts? I feed some to mine 

 and they relish them verj- much. 



Sec. GiLiJERT. The result of the defect in a ration of turnips 

 for colts would be about the same as it would be for voung cat- 

 tie. Tlie palatability of a food is no measure of the nutritive val- 

 ue of it. There is nothing we can place before stock that they will 

 eat with a better relish than apples, 3-et they are one of the poorest 

 feeding materials that we have as regards nutritive contents. So I 

 saj' palatabilit}' is no measure of nutritive value. 



Ql'estion. What is the effect of feeding apples on the production 

 of milk? 



Sec. Gilbert. Fed in small amount they will not have any ap- 

 preciable effect, because they are low in nutritive value. The re- 

 sult further than that would be about the same as with root food, 

 3 on increase the water of the milk, but not the cream or caseine to 

 an}- appreciable extent. You maj- increase the water of milk by 

 adding turnips or beets or apples to A'our ration, but this will not 

 increase the amount of butter to any extent. 



Question. How is it with sugar beets ? 



Sec. Gilbert. The result is about the same. The sugar goes 

 for another purpose than to make the solids of the milk. 



Question. Suppose you feed an average cow half a bushel of 

 turnips per da}, how much cotton seed meal would the cow require 

 to correct it? 



Sec. Gilbert. I would not pretend to be veiy accurate in any 

 statement in this direction without taking time to work it out. In 

 the first place I will say that if I was feeding cows for milk I 

 would not give them half a bushel of turnips, for I should not con- 

 sider it economical feeding ; however, with ten pounds cotton seed 

 meal fed with the thirty pounds of turnips and twelve pounds of 

 good hay the ration would be rich enough in albuminoids to give a 

 good rich milk. But there comes in a question, in this connection, 

 of flavors, which sometimes has to be looked out for in feeding tur- 



